His singing paid off: Time served for mob cooperator who helped bring down Gambinos

By Frank Donnelly |
fdonnelly@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- He sang
for the government and it paid off.

Former Pleasant Plains contractor
and truck owner Joseph Vollaro, whose cooperation helped take down the Gambino
crime family's entire organizational chart in 2008, was sentenced Friday to
time served for his own crimes.

Vollaro potentially faced 20
years to life, but a Brooklyn federal court judge said organized crime
"would thrive" without cooperators like Vollaro.

In 2008, he pleaded guilty in
Brooklyn federal court to racketeering conspiracy, making false statements and
narcotics distribution.

Vollaro wore a wire to record
dozens of conversations with high-ranking Gambino members, which led to
indictments covering a slew of crimes over three decades, including murder,
theft of union benefits and extortion at the site in Bloomfield where NASCAR
wanted to erect an 80,000-seat racetrack.

Vollaro, who is in witness
protection, began cooperating about a decade ago after he was busted with a
kilo of cocaine.

Vollaro also aided authorities in
an unrelated case close to home.

He recorded phone conversations
and wore a wire to conduct drug deals for state prosecutors in a case that
resulted in the 2009 indictment of members of a Staten Island-connected,
cross-country cocaine ring.

Two of those arrested, brothers
Richard and Joseph Fallacaro, whose family owned Jo Jo's Tire and Service
Center in Richmond Valley, were later sentenced in state Supreme Court, St.
George, to nine years in prison.